By Rev. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist
March 10, 2024 – Philippians 2:3-11
This Lenten season, we have been looking at Christus Victor –
Christ the Conqueror. Humanity was trapped by evil, held in the grip of death, captured by sin, and enslaved by Satan. But Christ came, and he battled evil, sin, Satan, and death and was victorious over them all through his life, death, and resurrection. Christ conquered. Christus Victor.
Last week we looked at how Christ can change us by conquering the evil in our hearts. This happens as we partner with him. It happens as we set our hearts and minds on him. He does the work as we follow his ways.
When we do this, amazing things can happen. We have seen people’s lives changed. We have seen people’s hearts change. Addictions have been overcome. Peace has been found. Love has been evident. Strength to face difficulties is present. We have found God to be faithful as he shows up as Christus Victor in our lives.
Next week, I want to talk about Christ being victorious over this world’s powers. We have seen God do some amazing things to stop the flow of evil in our world.
Today, though, I want to talk about the dangers of victory. You are in a spiritual battle. God is giving you the grace to overcome in different areas of your life. He is giving you the grace to walk well in difficult circumstances. He is giving you the grace to see victory in different areas of your life and world.
But there is some danger in victories. One of the greatest dangers of victory is partial success.
Here is what happens. We partner with Christ to overthrow evil in our hearts. Christ does an amazing work over time. We see the addictions lessen their hold on us. We watch as our relationships become healthier. We are amazed that Jesus has changed us enough that we look good on the outside. We have experienced the work of Christ the Conqueror.
We look around and compare ourselves to the people in the world, the people we used to hang out with, or the people we used to be, and we have done well. We become contented and, dare I say, a little proud.
We know that there is more work to do. We can see where our character has to develop if we are going to be like Jesus. But compared to where we were – it is amazing. We are doing well compared to the messy lives around us. We have had partial success, and then we rest on our laurels.
Another danger that is a cousin of partial success is something I call triumphalism.
In the Middle Ages, Christus Victor was the primary understanding of Christ’s work on the cross – Christ the conqueror. The problem came when “Christ triumphant” turned into the rallying cry of Christian Europe against the heathen Muslims in the Middle East. Christ Triumphant became Christian Triumphalism.
Christian Triumphalism expresses itself like this: we are right and everyone else is wrong. Because we are right, we should make everyone else do things our way. We should use our worldly power to enforce our way of life on other people.
In the name of Christian Triumphalism, many atrocities, many evils were fostered and carried out in the Middle Ages. Those atrocities were not only carried out on Muslims – but they were carried out on other Christians.
Christian Triumphalism perverts the power of the Kingdom of God. It takes the conflict that we face, which the Bible says is not against flesh and blood, and it makes the conflict very personal against flesh and blood. Then, this personal fight is spun in a way where God is on our side against the other person.
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Here is what Christian triumphalism looks like on a personal level.
I have known people who have experienced the power of Christus Victor. The Spirit of God works, overthrowing addictions, demolishing the demonic, setting people free, healing relationships, and healing of every kind. Christ is triumphant.
What can happen is a kind of Christian Triumphalism sneaks in. A person starts to feel like they have a corner on spirituality. Others aren’t as spiritual as I am because they don’t have the experience that I have. Only people who experience God the way I do are really spiritual; others have an anemic spirituality.
You have heard the derogatory phrase non-Christians use of Christians – Holier than thou. What they are often seeing is Christian Triumphalism.
Within the church, it turns into denominationalism. Different denominations are alright. Denominationalism, where we hold our denomination up to be the best, the most spiritual, the real church, isn’t good.
What happens is the concept of triumph in the Kingdom of God over the power of sin, evil, death and Satan, gets mixed up with the concept of triumph in the world. We start to think about power the way the world thinks about power. When we do that, our lives get distorted.
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The core of the Kingdom of God is the cross, a symbol of weakness, not a sword or any other symbol of power. The example of the Kingdom and the life of the Kingdom are found in Jesus Christ. Listen again to the power dynamics of Christ’s life.
Philippians 2:3–11 (NIV)
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Jesus, Christus Victor, it says was in very nature, God. If anyone could claim Christian Triumphalism, it would be him. Yet scripture tells us that he let go of his power. He did not consider equality with God something to be held onto – something to be used to his own advantage.
Instead, he made himself nothing. He emptied himself. He emptied himself of his transcendence. As God, he could be everywhere at once. He confined himself to time and space. He was not under the normal laws of time and space or the normal physics of time and space. He was God. He emptied himself and made himself subject to gravity, subject to the growth process.
He became a human being. Talk about a power drop, from God to being human. Not only that, but he also didn’t become a very powerful human being; he became a servant.
He became a man and humbled himself even further and became obedient to death on a cross. He humbled himself. He did not use all that power he had access to, to save himself.
Philippians 2:8 (NIV)
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
That is the opposite of power. He gave himself up to the cross.
But looks what happened because of this humility.
Philippians 2:9–11 (NIV)
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
That is Christus Victor. That is Christ, the conqueror. But how did he become Christ the conqueror. Through humility. How do we partner with Christus Victor to overthrow evil and reconcile and redeem all of creation? —In humility.
This is what the Bible says,
James 4:6 (NRSV)
6 But he gives all the more grace; therefore, it says,
“God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.”
“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Is Christ the conqueror going to partner with you to overthrow evil in your heart or in the world if you are proud?
No, the Bible is clear; God will not enter into a partnership with the proud, but He will oppose them. He will only partner with the humble.
Here is the dynamic that happens a way to often. We see our lives and we see how desperately we need God. We recognize our utter dependence on Him. So, we enter into a partnership with Christus Victor, and we overthrow some of the evil we see in our hearts and in the world around us.
But when that happens, our hearts change. We are no longer quite as dependent on him. Our lives are not falling apart. Life is good. Pride creeps in. As I said before, the biggest danger is a partial success.
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Here is what often happens, in the blindness that pride brings – unknown to us God ceases the partnership. But we still see those areas that need work and we see evil to overcome. We try to conquer, but we can’t. So, what do you do when you try to overthrow evil, and you can’t do it. Well, we revert to that which we know. We try to use our own power to fix the problems we see in our lives.
If we can’t bring God’s power to bear on the situation, then we better bring to bear political power, psychological power, the power of money, the power of more effort, the power of our intellect, the power of controlling the people and circumstances around us.
When we cease to partner with Christ and use our power rather than his power, we step away from kingdom life. We step away from the power of God and the promises of God.
But the problem is we are still Christians. What do you do if you are a Christian, but you are trying to solve your problems with your own power? We need to rationalize. We need to tell ourselves our stories that Christianize our use of these powers. We start to make living outside the Kingdom sound amazingly Christian.
After all, we are fighting against evil. That has to be the Christian thing to do right. We want what is good, and that has to be Christian, right? We are using our influence for good things. That’s good, right?
But what has really happened is that we have ceased to partner with Christ and have taken on a new partner called worldly power. Then, we make our own plans and invite God to bless them. Making him our servant rather than us being his.
It is sheer pride. But one of the ramifications of pride is blindness. When a person is sinfully proud, they won’t see clearly. They don’t see their own pride. They don’t see the evil that pride closes the door on God and opens the door to our own self-reliance. They don’t see themselves as being anything but good. They buy into triumphalism, and they can’t even see it. Here is what happens.
Christendom has learned to build great churches out of these kinds of dynamics, but we are not so good at building great people. Our churches can be filled with excellent music and empty of true praise. Our churches can be filled with great oratory and empty of true discipleship. Our churches can be filled with energy and empty of the Spirit. Our churches can engage in great causes and be disengaged from the great commission and the great commandments.
However, people, it is not only found in the big picture of churches but this lack of partnership is also found too often in our lives. We depend on God, and we see some progress. We start to think we can do it ourselves, so we depend on something other than God. We depend on doing our devotions. We depend on going to church. We depend on the fervency of our prayers. We depend on our own intellect. We become proud. We function independently of God. That’s the definition of pride.
Christ the conqueror, ceases to be our partner. But we are still Christians, but we are living outside the power of the Kingdom. But we try to do things on our own strength, and we fail. So, we go back to what we know. Instead of going back to humility – dependence on God, we fall back to our own power.
Most of us have a good education, can do some research, and can read self-help books. Most of us can access the internet and find that there are other people who are going through problems just like us. We can get into a support group. Some of us can bring money to bear on the problems. We can buy good counselling. We can get good advice. But it is all about what we can do. We do the work, and we ask God to bless our work. We make him into our servants.
We use the power of our will to control our situations and, often the situations around us. We create laws for ourselves to obey. We become religious, maybe even spiritual, but not kingdom people.
But our pride blinds us. Because we have Christianized these things, they must be good. After all, they are Christian self-help books. They are Christian friends. They are Christian support groups. What I am doing must be Christian. It must be good, right?
We often miss the heart of the Kingdom, and we don’t know it. The biggest danger to Christ having his way in our heart is our partial success. Christ the conqueror also needs to conquer the pride in our heart that believes we can live independent of him. Our lives need to reflect the humility of Christ so we can actually partner with him.
Look at Jesus. When the Bible says he emptied himself and humbled himself, he didn’t become powerless. He demonstrated a lot of power. He healed the sick, raised the dead, he fed the multitudes, calmed the storm, he walked on water. That’s hardly powerless.
But he says of himself, I have only said and done what my father has called me to do.
People, you are not without power either. Some of you have political power. Some of you have leadership in your work. Many of you have the power of a good mind. You have the power of your will. You know how to solve problems. You have the power of money. Some of you know a lot of people who can get things done. Some of you are great organizers.
Partnering with Christus Victor doesn’t mean that you won’t use the power that is at your disposal. It means that you will partner with Christ. You will use it as when and how he shows you how to use it. You won’t try to take on problems on your own. You will look to him and live out your calling on your life.
If you want to grow in character, overcome evil in your heart and in this world, and find peace, love, joy and strength, you start with God. You partner with God. You have him direct you in using the power that you have.
The church in Galatia had received Christ by faith. They received the Spirit by believing the gospel. But then they started to believe that the way to live out the Christian life was to follow after all kinds of humans laws. They had to conquer evil with their own effort.
Here is what Paul writes to them.
Galatians 3:2–3 (NLT)
2 Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. 3 How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?
It happens. We begin with the Spirit but then we think we can conquer evil with our own human effort. It didn’t work then. It doesn’t work now.
People, will you give up a triumphalism that makes ourselves out to be better than others – as if the success we have experienced was done in our own power? Will you choose to treat those around you, even the ones who have messed up with humility?
Would you renounce the pride that comes from partial success? You have celebrated how far you have come, but you are relying on your own power to get you the rest of the way?
Would you renounce the pride that causes you to live independently from God? Will you acknowledge your dependence on him? Would you renounce the need to control your life and put your life under God’s control?
Some of you are saying, how do I do that? You confess your pride and ask for forgiveness. You step back into humility. You are depending on God to move you towards where you need to be. Even when moving back to where you need to be, you are dependent on him. You are dependent on him to cause you to grow.
It is a partnership. Will you truly partner with Christ to overthrow evil and reconcile and redeem all of creation? And will you commit yourself to that partnership even in the middle of success?
This morning, we celebrate the cross. It was the starting point of overcoming evil. It continues to be way that God changes us. The work of the cross changed you when you came to Jesus. The work of the cross is what we depend on to change us now.
Sermon Questions
Philippians 2:3-11
Introduction
1. What are three things you are thankful for?
2. What are you praying about?
Digging in
3. The sermon talked about how “one of the greatest dangers of victory is partial success.” What do you think of that?
4. The sermon talked about “Christian Triumphalism.” We think we are right or we have experienced victory; therefore, we have the right to enforce our beliefs on other people. Have you seen that dynamic?
5. Read Philippians 2:3-11. How would you describe the “mindset” (verse 5) of Jesus in your own words?
6. Consider verses 5-8. Make a list of what this tells us about Jesus when he was on earth?
7. Consider verses 9-11. What do these verses tell us about Jesus?
8. Read James 4:6 – What would it look like for God to oppose you? What would it look like for God to give grace to you? Define or describe what sinful pride looks like. Define or describe what humility looks like.
9. How does a Christian who is proud and who God opposes continue to live? How can we replace the power of God in our lives?
10. Read Galatians 3:2-3. Describe what the Galatian church was doing. How can we fall into the same trap?
Application
11. As you have considered these things, is there anything you need to repent of?